266 
DR. PHILIP’S OBSERVATIONS ON 
state of the stomach, from the cause just pointed out, may influence every part 
of the nervous system ; and it appears from experiments which the Society did 
me the honour to publish many years ago, some of which were repeated by 
Mr. Cliff, that a powerful and sudden affection of the nervous system is 
capable of immediately destroying the circulation in every part of the animal, 
by instantly depriving both the heart and blood-vessels of their power. 
Here the question naturally arises. For what purpose are the vital organs 
thus connected with every part of the brain and spinal marrow ? 
This question is answered by experiments detailed in my treatise on the Vital 
Functions, an account of some of which appeared in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions of 1822 . From them it was found that the power of secreting surfaces 
is deranged by abstracting from them any considerable part of the influence 
either of the brain or spinal marrow ; and as the function of secretion is effected 
by the action of the nerves on the blood, as appears from facts detailed in the 
paper just referred to, and another which I had the honour to lay before the 
Society a few weeks ago, it is evident that the presence of nervous power in 
a secreting organ would be useless, were not the blood on which it operates 
also supplied, and disordered if it were not supplied in due proportion ; and 
consequently its supply varied as the supply of nervous power varies. 
We thus see not only why secreting surfaces are placed under the influence 
of every part of the nervous system, but also why it is necessary that the san- 
guiferous system should be under the controul of the same laws which regulate 
the supply of nervous power. 
It appears then that by means of the system of ganglionic nerves, the in- 
fluence of every part of the brain and spinal marrow is bestowed on secreting 
surfaces, and on those organs by which the supply of their fluids is regulated, 
and that this influence is necessary to their functions. But it is not the secret- 
ing power alone that is thus placed under the influence of every part of the 
brain and spinal marrow ; for it is a necessary inference from experiments re- 
lated in a paper which the Society did me the honour to publish last year, 
that the whole of those processes on which the healthy structure of the part 
depends are under the same influence. 
The influence therefore of the whole brain and spinal marrow is thus united 
by nerves from various parts of these organs entering ganglions and plexuses, 
